Here’s one of the final episodes of In Her Shoes, tales that got left on the cutting room floor while writing Tales From Another Mother Runner.
I was running 15K near Vancouver, Washington, with two girlfriends. The course is mostly flat with a few good-sized hills. I wasn’t planning on racing; I was just running it because I do this event every year.
Around mile 2, my girlfriends and I were talking about husbands and this 70-year old guy who was near me started interjecting his marriage advice. His name was Patrick, and we ended up running together for quite a while.
Then we talked about running. He said he will never be as fast as he once was and how now when he races, it’s just a different race. It’s more just the fun of it. Plus, he always places in his age group because there are not a lot of people the 70- to 79-year-old category. He was really great company, but his pace was a bit slower than I had been running lately
The friends got further and further ahead of me. With about four miles to go, Patrick told me I should get going and join them. But I could barely see them.
I didn’t think I was going to catch up to them, but somehow I did. I just had this adrenaline. I usually start out slow anyway, then try to pick it up the second half, but this dialed up the intensity. I found myself at an uncomfortably hard pace but with enough energy to maintain it. Once I saw my friends, I thought, I’d already run this fast to get to them; I’m just going to go for it. A Beastie Boys’ song was playing at the finish line, and it propelled me across.
I definitely left everything I had on the course, which made me pretty happy. I saw my friends come in, congratulated them, then took off. I had errands to do. Hours later, one of my girlfriends called and said, “You placed second in your age group!”
I was totally shocked. Did nobody else enter in my age group or what? What the heck?
Patrick didn’t just teach me about marriage: He taught me something about saving myself in the early stages of the race so I could have gas in the tank at the end.
—Jillian (Favorite treat after a run is a tall bottle of HUB Seven Grain Stout. “Obviously healthy: seven grains!”)
How great! An unexpected placing…..and I’m sure the race went by much faster with all that great conversation with a new person.